Home sewer vent as dump station?

[123Bill]

My home sewer discharge vent pops up from the ground beside my driveway. I am wondering if anyone has used their home sewer vent for a dump station. My thoughts are that (if necessary) my motorhome could be used to isolate a Coved-19 patient and the home vent connection would be quite handy. I suspect doing this could be against local codes but I am wondering if it functionally would work in a necessity. Has anyone tried it????

[DutchmenSport]

Yep. Did that when we lived in town. Suggestion though. Hook-up your RV sewer hoses, dump, then unhook them and hide them again. Don't leave your hoses out. Use them only when dumping, then put away. Another tip, do it after dark, and you'll never have problems with neighbors nib-nosing on you.

We now live in the country and dump into our septic tank. No neighbors to worry about here, either.

[F76Marion]

123Bill,

The thing that sticks out of your lawn is not a sewer vent. It is a clean-out to be used with a snake if the line had some trouble.

With no hint where you live, I can begin to tell you if your use would be a code violation, but these things vary so far and wide that nothing would surprise me these days.

Yes, that clean-out can easily be a good dump. You will have to dump just like at a camp ground. That is to say don't leave the valve open. Get a good fill on the tank before you dump.

When I had to have this house's septic system redone, I had a clean-out installed that is convenient to the driveway.

Frank

[Dutch Star Don]

I added a threaded "T" to mine and ran a 3" drain line to my RV slab 25' away. The clean out still works as designed and I now have a sewer drain next to the RV.

[MRUSA14]

Originally Posted by F76Marion

123Bill,

The thing that sticks out of your lawn is not a sewer vent. It is a clean-out to be used with a snake if the line had some trouble.

Not necessarily. I owned a home that had both a cleanout (low, and with a screw-on cap) and a vent, which was about 12 feet tall and terminated above the roof line.

[JBDISCOVERY]

The sewer clean out fixture is great to use as a RV dump. Have used
ours many times.
JimB

[Biljol]

I am having a house with a rv garage built — for some reason the builder does not offer a dump location or clean out in the garage—- my solution was have them add a laundry sink plumb in the area —- since I have a masarator and have dumped via a 3/4 hose, figure that the drain for it and the water from the plumb in will work to hook up the rv in the garage. They do provide a 50 amp plug for the rv go figure.

[gmc70]

Biljol: The reason you may not be able to have a dump is that the plumber may not be able to gat the drop in line needed to your connection to sewer or septic and more than likely you would have to have a trap in that line to pass code. I went thru this with our new home and wanted a dump for our RV port and could not get it for the stated reasons. No drop needed for electric, it will flow up hill, unlike poop or what ever.

[powercat_ras]

I changed out the top of the cleanout to allow me to dump at home using this item:

Sewer Cap

Works great. The inside threads are like what you find at most RV parks so you can thread your elbow into it and have a leak free secure connection when dumping.

It was cheaper when I bought it a few years ago, you likely can find a less expensive alternative. I cover it with a large landscape paver when not in use. As has been said, it's technically a code violation and I don't want to draw attention to it.

[djc290]

That "vent" is not usually for your tank - its for the leach field. The LAST thing you want to be doing is bypassing your septic tank and dump solids directly into your leach field. If its a "clean out", you should know where that line goes before dumping into it. A very costly difference.

[Biljol]

We will be connected to city sewer the laundry sink option should work for me because there will be no trap in place since there will be no sink just a cap with a opening to connect the massarator line to that will be caped when not in use and a gate valve.

Don’t think the drop would be an issue as there is a toilet further down the line from the sewer connection. I just think the builder did not want to get a new set of plans approved.

[daveandcarol]

Before we sold our S&B, we checked the city zoning to see if we could keep the MH in the driveway. That was allowed but it was against zoning for anyone to live in it. I believe there have been some recent news stories about people trying to isolate from their family in their MH due to COVID and having problems with HOA's, etc. with that. Then again, sometimes it's easier to get forgiveness than it is permission...

[123Bill]

Thanks everyone for your quick and comprehensive response. I do, however, still have some concerns about my current home sewer system set-up. My house if fifty years old and my pop-up is a 6 " cast iron pipe with a louvered cover. It looks like a vent. Everyone who responded to my post calls it a clean out. Could this louvered cover be something other than a clean out? Could I have a trap downstream? These are questions better asked of a plumber but I think someone on this chain may have the answer.

[Gary RVRoamer]

If it has a louvered cover it's probably not a cleanout, but vents aren't commonly installed in the lawn either. The house plumbing is always vented above the roof line, but not the exterior septic or the sewer lines to a municipal system. A typical residential septic leach field isn't usually vented either, but some types or situation do require it. In short, don't use that louvered port until you can determine exactly what it is. The possibility that it does not go direct to a septic or municipal sewer line is too great to take a chance (cause you REALLY don't want to dump into it if its not a cleanout access)..


One possibility is that its not a sewer related connection at all; just a drainage pipe to channel storm or ground water away. Those are often vented or perhaps the louver is an additional drainage entry port.The fact that it is adjacent to the driveway would make me suspicious of that.